The mayor of one of Israel’s biggest cities is facing accusations of racism after he suspended 30 Israeli Arab citizens from their jobs for “security” reasons as fear continued to run high in the Jewish state after Tuesday’s deadly Palestinian attack on a Jerusalem synagogue.

The step by Itamar Shimoni, mayor of the coastal city of Ashkelon, comes after a wave of attacks, mostly in Jerusalem, triggered largely by the Palestinian perception of an Israeli threat to al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. The synagogue assailants are widely viewed in Arab East Jerusalem as “martyrs” who acted in defence of the mosque. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not make changes in the mosque compound, sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount. But provocative visits by right-wing Israeli politicians have more weight in Arab eyes than the premier’s declarations.

Israelis were jolted by the synagogue attack, in which four worshippers and a policeman were killed, and the government is hard pressed to restore a sense of security after a wave of violence over the past month. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich eased the granting of gun licences, and several municipalities said they would post armed security guards at nursery schools that are close to construction sites where Arabs are employed.

Unrest in Jerusalem

Unrest in Jerusalem

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A masked Palestinian celebrates the attack on the Jerusalem synagogue holding a poster of the attackers,Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, during a rally in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

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A masked Palestinian youth wearing a Hamas headband uses a sling-shot to throw back a tear gas canister towards Israeli forces during clashes outside the Israeli-run Ofer military prison following the deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue

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Masked Palestinians hold axes and a gun as they celebrate with others an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

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Israeli Zaka emergency services volunteers carry the body of one of the two Palestinian assailants who were shot dead while attacking worshippers at a synagogue to an ambulance in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighbourhood in Jerusalem

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An Ultra-orthodox jewish man prays at the scene of an attack, by two Palestinians, on a synagogue in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighbourhood in Jerusalem

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An Israeli woman cries on a veranda next to a synagogue where a suspected Palestinian attack took place in Jerusalem

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An Israeli police officer gestures as he holds a weapon near the scene of an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue

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Israeli Zaka emergency services volunteers carry the body of an assailant who was shot dead while attacking a synagogue

AFP

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Israeli emergency services personnel clean the sidewalk at the scene of an attack, by two Palestinians, on Israeli worshippers at a synagogue in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighbourhood in Jerusalem

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Israeli security personnel run next to the synagogue in Har Nof, where a suspected Palestinian attack took place

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A Palestinian activist knocks a hole through the wall near East Jerusalem

AFP

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A masked Palestinian youth burns a tire near Israel's controversial barrier that separates the West Bank town of Abu Dis from Jerusalem

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A Palestinian protester throws a stone at Israeli troops during clashes in the West Bank town of Abu Dis near Jerusalem

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Palestinian mourners attend the funeral of bus driver Yusuf Hasan al-Ramuni in the West Bank town of Abu Dis from Jerusalem . A Palestinian bus driver was found hanged in his vehicle in Jerusalem, sparking clashes, after what Israel said was an apparent suicide but a colleague said looked like murder

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A Palestinian protester tries to hammer a hole through Israel's controversial barrier that separates the West Bank town of Abu Dis from Jerusalem

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Palestinian protesters climb a ladder at Israel's controversial barrier that separates the West Bank town of Abu Dis from Jerusalem

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Israeli border policeman arrested over shooting of Palestinian boy during West Bank protests

REUTERS

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Masked Palestinian youths clash with Israeli security forces in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Abu Tor

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Israeli fire fighters inspect the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem and then attacked people with an iron bar, killing one person and injuring 13 in what authorities called a terror attack before he was shot dead by the police. The militant Islamic group Hamas took responsibility for the attack

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Israeli police officers walk at the scene of an attack in Jerusalem

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Israeli rescue workers and paramedics carry an injured man to an ambulance after a Palestinian man, Ibrahim al-Akri, was shot by Israeli police officers after he drove into a crowd of people

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Ultra-Orthodox Jews look on from behind a police line at the scene of a killing when a Palestinian man drove a van into a crowd of police and civilians along the tracks of the Light Rail trolley system in East Jerusalem

There are calls on social media sites to sack workers from annexed East Jerusalem. The municipality of Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, has instituted a rotation system by which parents take turns as guards at their children’s nursery schools, Ynet news agency reported. Another municipality, Kiryat Ono, imposed a ban on workers from the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces notified the families of the assailants in the synagogue attack, Uday Abu Jamal and Ghassan Abu Jamal, that their homes will be demolished. Israel says this is a deterrent to future attacks, but Bill Van Esveld, local representative of Human Rights Watch, said they “deliberately harm the innocent.”

“Israel should prosecute and punish those responsible for criminal attacks, not make their families homeless,” he said.

The site is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Getty Images)

Clashes between youths and police erupted in the Shuafat refugee camp in Arab East Jerusalem after security forces served a demolition order to the family of a Palestinian who killed two Israelis earlier this month in a car attack. In Jabel Mukaber, where the Abu Jamal homes are located, 50 Palestinians pelted police with stones before being dispersed with stun grenades, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Mr Shimoni announced on his Facebook page that he was halting “until further notice” construction of municipal bomb shelters being built by Israeli Arabs and was posting armed guards at 40 nursery schools that are near other construction sites where Arabs are employed. He told the Walla website that this was intended “to increase the personal security of parents, children and the educational staff.” Arab Israelis are full Israeli citizens.

Tziona Koenig-Yair, Israel’s commissioner for equal employment opportunities, said Mr Shimoni’s move violates a legal ban on employment discrimination based on race, ethnic origin or religion. The commission said in a statement that since the synagogue attack there has been a “not insignificant” number of cases of employers firing or wishing to terminate Arab employees “solely on racial grounds.”